


Desire, desire, what is your name?

by SheenaWilde



Series: The Magnificent Seven Week 2017 [3]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Day 3, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, M/M, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 02:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12201744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheenaWilde/pseuds/SheenaWilde
Summary: When Faraday is attacked by a stranger and falls into a river while scuffling, he gets sick. And who else would take care of him than Vasquez?Written for prompt: Unexpected





	Desire, desire, what is your name?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a bit late but I hope the length and the story will make up for it!

It was a quiet night with a clear, starry sky, the air not chilly enough yet to be fit for October, but very close to it. Faraday staggered onto the road, his occasional wish to spend time playing cards and to drink in company sated by his and Vasquez’s – the only one willing to come along with him – outing that night. Vaz already took his leave a while ago, making Faraday swear to everything that is sacred to him that he wouldn’t cheat anyone out of their right, peaceful minds after he’d been left alone. They needed no trouble, Vasquez reminded him. If he caused any, Sam would be after his hide, and that thought actually made Faraday behave.

So now, after deciding he had won enough money – fairly! – and was drunk enough, he took his leave. Drunk out of his mind, the world didn’t really want to stay still around him or listen to him, so he staggered slowly, carefully along the dirty road, back to the saloon in the other end of town where they were spending the night. Focusing on taking one step after another, he didn’t notice the footsteps approaching him, only when he was suddenly roughly seized by the collar and someone started dragging him out of the town.

“Hey! What the ever living hell?!” he protested loudly and tried to turn around, or at least reach back and hit his assaulter but he wasn’t in a state to do so. He only managed to completely lose his footing, making whoever was dragging him curse loudly and drag him with even more force, even rougher. “What the fuck do you want? Let go of me!”

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” a voice shouted back at him and it was a voice he didn’t recognized. Now he really didn’t know what was going on. He hadn’t cheated tonight, honestly, and he knew no one in this part of the state. He tried to struggle in his awkward position, but only earned himself an exhausted groan and hit in the face.

So now he was holding his bleeding nose and letting the stranger drag him out of the town, to the bank of the nearby river. There, he was thrown to the ground and before he could sit up, he heard the loud click of a pistol being cocked – a pistol presumably pointed at him. He managed to push himself into a sitting position, and bringing his hands back to his hurt nose, he glared up at his attacker. It was a tall man, pretty muscular too, with a flat, round face and stupid expression. Faraday could have sworn that he had never seen him before.

“What do you want from me?” he stared up at the man in utter confusion.

“Don’t you play dumb, Faraday! You damn well know what I want from ya!” the man growled at him angrily. Oh shit, he knew his name, and judging by his tone and friendly approach, they didn’t part on good terms.

“I swear to god I have no idea who you are” Faraday stared up at him, squinting at him through the drunken haze, then shook his head. Which made his head swim, so good move, Joshua… “Nope, still don’t know you.”

“You damn well know me and what I want! I want my money back! You cheated in cards, then took off before we coulda taken care of ya!” the man shouted at him, then stepped closer and kicked Faraday’s leg. “Now, pay me back or I’m putting you down!”

“Now, now, I wouldn’t hurry with that. A dead man can’t pay you, can he?” Faraday mumbled, releasing his nose that seemed to have stopped bleeding. He grimaced at the pain shooting into it when he took a deep breath, but otherwise it seemed to be okay.

“Stop with the smartness, doesn’t suit ya anyway” the man said in an irritated voice, then stepped closer, holding his gun almost directly against Faraday’s forehead. “Give me my money. Right now. I saw you playing, you have enough!”

“Well, I can’t exactly give you back your money if you don’t tell me how much I owe you…” Faraday started in a very scientific voice, but then the barrel of the gun hit him in the jaw.

“I told you to stop the back talking, didn’t I?!” the man snarled but Faraday was too busy opening and closing his mouth to make the pain fade away.

“Alright… if that’s how you wanna play…” he muttered, mostly to himself, and as fast as he could drunkenly manage, he kicked out his legs, tackling the other man to the ground. He fell with a loud curse and in the next moment Faraday was on him, ripping the pistol out of his hand and punching him with both fists as hard as he could manage. The man of course tried to fight back, but Faraday was in a better position and he could deliver a few big punches before his opponent managed to find footing and throw him off himself. Faraday felt himself fall backwards, to the edge of the steep riverbank – and then over it, downwards. He did have enough time to grab the man’s shirt though, so he was dragging him down, too.

They fell into the river with a loud splash, water spattering up around them. Faraday went in face-first, because that was just his luck. The river wasn’t too deep or wide, so he quickly managed to get his head above the surface. Taking a few deep breathes, he realized that the sudden shock of falling and the cold water actually sobered him up a bit, making his blurry vision somewhat less hazy. He saw his attacker fight his head above the water level too, gasping for air when he finally could, and he decided to use his shock to his own advantage. He jumped at the other, pushing his head under the water and holding him there with all his strength. The man fought like the devil, trying to throw Faraday’s hands off or pull his legs out from under him, but he placed his body far enough from him and as stable as he could, so it wasn’t an easy task. Faraday was actually proud of himself, but honestly, he’d been in worse situations with a lot more alcohol in his body, so this wasn’t much of an achievement.

When the man under his hands stopped struggling so vigorously, Faraday dragged him out of the water and made sure he still lived. But the moment his head was above the water, the man tried to launch himself at Faraday. He cursed and pushed his head back underwater, fighting down another row of attempts from the man to fight him off. He, again, waited for the man to give up with his efforts. When this happened, he dragged him up again, more prepared this time, but the man just gasped for air and didn’t try to hit him. Faraday pulled him towards the bank and threw him down on the sand before walking out of the water.

Damn, it was chilly out of the river. Not that the river was a hot bath, but out in the cold night it was practically freezing. He shook himself and fought down the chattering of his teeth before crouching down next to the man who was coughing up water and wheezing heavily.

“So… Did you learn not to pick fights with me?” he asked in a cheery but threatening voice.

“Fuck… you…!” the man managed between two coughs, then spat some more water onto the sand.

“Well, now, that didn’t sound like a yes to me! I might just have to take you back to the water…” Faraday shook his head slowly, then grabbed the back of the man’s shirt, pulling him backwards.

“No, no, stop that!” the man shouted as he tried to grab Faraday’s hand to free himself, just as Faraday had tried to earlier when he was held like this. “I’ll leave you alone, I swear!”

“Aw, really? Pinky promise?” Faraday grinned at him, then threw him down roughly, just to make sure he wouldn’t get up soon. Not that his pistols would be of any use now, completely soaked through. Shit! Ethel and Maria! He honestly hoped he could save them. It would be a shame if he had to replace them.

Faraday straightened up with a groan and flexed to get rid of the pain in his back, then casting one last glance at the man collapsed on the sand beside him, he started to climb up the riverbank. The rest of his way back to the saloon was uneventful, fortunately, but he was shaking the whole time, his teeth clinking as he shook. It was way too late in the year for him to be walking around in wet clothes. He was soaked to the bone and the cold night air was freezing him completely. By the time he finally stepped inside the saloon, he couldn’t wait to get into his room and get out of his dripping wet clothes.

He tried to be as silent as he could manage when he entered the room he was sharing with Vasquez – cause they all had to be sharing because there wasn’t enough room for the seven of them. Sam was with Red Harvest, Goodnight with Billy (although Faraday had a sneaking suspicion they didn’t exactly mind being roomed together, judging by the obvious lack of female company around them and the looks he had seen them exchange), and only Horne got his own room. It was fair though, last time it was Vasquez alone and Faraday with Sam because only Sam swore he wouldn’t kill Faraday, and the time before that, it was Red getting his own room when they were in a town. Not that Faraday cared much about sleeping arrangements. Most of the times they were sleeping outside, so if the situation involved sleeping in a bed, he was in.

Vasquez was snoring softly on his bed when Faraday entered, the clattering of his teeth sounding way too loud in the silent room. He hurriedly toed off his boots, then started stripping out of his clothes like crazy, hanging them up to dry on the sparse furniture the room had to offer – the two chairs and the one table. Then, naked as he was, he slid into his bed, pulling the covers over his head, and waited for the shivering to stop. When he warmed up enough that he stopped shaking, it took only a few minutes for him to fall asleep.

In the morning, Faraday opened his eyes to the incredulous voice of Vasquez.

“…your clothes, guero? It couldn’t have been raining! Are you awake?”

Faraday wanted to answer him, he really did – he wanted to tell Vasquez that yes, he heard him, and no, it really wasn’t rain, but he didn’t have the energy to do so. So he just grumbled something he was pretty sure was unintelligible, and fell asleep again.

Later when he opened his eyes again, the world was swimming in front of his eyes. He closed and opened them again but it didn’t help. He frowned and tried to sit up, but he fell back almost immediately, his arm too weak to support him. His head also hurt like hell and he was cold, so cold, colder than the previous evening. He pulled the blanket tighter around himself and curled up, deciding to stay in bed a little more. Sam would come and fetch him if it was time for them to go, anyway.

The next he remembered was hazily seeing Vasquez and Sam standing above him. He could see that their mouths were moving but he didn’t hear anything and couldn’t tell if they were talking to him or each other. But he couldn’t really care, he was shivering badly and his head hurt like hell.

“Am sick, ain’t I?” he wanted to ask but his voice was hoarse and it was so hard to form the words, he wasn’t even sure any voice left his throat at all. So he just let himself black out again – he couldn’t do anything else anyway, could he?

When he next came to, he actually managed to open his eyes and keep them open without too much effort. He decided to try and sit up, but the moment he was above horizontal level, he felt two warm hands on his shoulders pushing him back down.

“Stay still, guero, you’re too weak to get up” he heard Vasquez say and when he looked at the direction the voice came from, he saw his favorite Mexican look back at him with a worried expression. “You had us worried here, you know. You had- well, have a pretty bad fever. The doctor said you have to stay in bed until it completely disappears.”

“Don’t need no doctor” Faraday croaked and was surprised to find his throat so dry. He started coughing, his throat feeling like sand. “Water?” he managed between two fits of coughing, then suffered through Vasquez having to help him drink water from a glass. He could have sit up for that, really. “So” he started when he finally got his voice back. “What happened?”

“I should ask that of you, cabrón” Vasquez looked at him through narrowed eyes. “When I woke up, I saw your soaked clothes and you weren’t responding to me trying to wake you. By the time I fetched Sam, you were shaking and sweating with fever, so we had to call the town doctor. What did you do to yourself to get so sick?”

“Got attacked on my way back and he pushed me into the river” Faraday explained and saw Vasquez’s expression cloud immediately. “Don’t worry, he got it worse than me.”

“I told you to play fair, but you don’t listen to me! This is why you get into these situation! Dios mio, you idiot, you could have d-”

“-died, yeah, yeah” Faraday managed to roll his eyes at Vasquez words, although he regretted it slightly, since the world immediately started to swim in front of his eyes. “I kept myself to the promise and played fair, actually. It was some guy who claimed to know me from earlier. I didn’t recognize him though.”

“You are not an easy man to deal with, I hope you know that, amigo” Vasquez shook his head slowly, incredulously. Then he stood up with a sigh and looked towards the door. “I’m going to bring you something to eat. You’ve been out cold for two days, you must be hungry.”

“What the hell, two days?” Faraday stared at Vasquez, then groaned. “It’s good I’m all better now, then. I’ll get better by noon and we can get going before sundown then.”

“Oh, no, we’re not going anywhere, guero. And you especially are not going anywhere” Vasquez shook his head with a stern expression. “The doctor said you have to stay in bed for at least three more days to be completely healed.”

“What? Three days? Ain’t no way I’m gonna spend that much in bed!” Faraday protested and already started sitting up on the bed, just to prove his point that he was fine and didn’t need to be pampered like a baby, but those two strong hands were quickly on him again, once again pushing him back on the bed.

“No, no, you are going to lie there and put up with it” Vasquez said sternly as he held Faraday down. Although he tried to struggle, Faraday had to realize that he was way too weak to fight off Vasquez’s iron grip on him, so with an angry huff, he gave up, lied back down and pouted. “Now, stay there while I fetch you some food. If I catch you out of bed, you’ll have it way worse than now.”

“Fine, fine! I’m staying” Faraday muttered angrily and didn’t look at Vasquez, just kept pouting. Vasquez sighed and Faraday could practically hear him roll his eyes, but before he could comment on that, his stomach decided to rumble loudly. “Hurry with that food” he called after the already leaving Vasquez who only laughed in response.

The next days passed like this, with Vasquez taking care of him and him grumbling about not being allowed to get up. Sam also visited him meanwhile and he too told him to stay put and heal. Faraday hated it – he was treated like a kid. He had never been treated like a kid before! …really, never. And even though he continued to whine about it, he actually liked that Vasquez was there with him almost constantly, helping him drink, eat or anything he might need help with. It was- weird. New. But definitely not bad.

On the third day the doctor came back to have a look at him and he was finally allowed to sit up as much he liked to, or even walk around the room if he wanted to, but he still couldn’t exhaust himself unless he wanted to spend yet more time bedridden. Since that didn’t seem appealing and Vasquez and Sam were glaring daggers at him, he promised to obey the doctor’s words. That was the easiest way to deal with the two of them ganging up on him.

On the fifth day, he was sitting up on his bed and Vasquez was sitting on the chair in front of him, and the two of them were laughing about a silly story Faraday had just told him about a bet he lost. Both of them had tears in their eyes from laughter as Faraday explained how he had to run away from the sheriff of a town in nothing but a corset and female smalls because he had lost a bet and he had to go into the saloon wearing nothing but female lingerie.

“I can so easily imagine you marching up to the bar in that!” Vasquez managed to say while laughing. “I bet you were turning many heads!”

“Oh, yeah, I was a real beauty in that! No man could resist me” Faraday grinned at Vasquez, then motioned at his own body. “I mean, the world’s greatest lover without proper clothes on? Everyone wants that!”

“Sure, amigo, if you say so” Vasquez rolled his eyes but then let his gaze slowly trail down Faraday’s body. Faraday of course noticed that and raised his eyebrows at him.

“I am so not betting on that ever again, don’t even think about it!” he warned his friend, who quickly looked back up in his eyes at that, and something briefly flashed in his eyes that Faraday didn’t have enough time to recognize before he grinned at him.

“Don’t worry, guerito, I know I don’t need to make you bet on something for you to be stupid like that.”

This earned him a pillow in the face that Vasquez threw right back at him with a chuckle.

On the seventh day of his sufferings, Faraday was finally set free. The doctor came again to look at him and told him he was perfectly fine, although he added that a longer ride in the weather that was getting colder by the day was still not recommended for a few days. But Faraday smelled freedom in the form of road dust mixed and cigarette smoke, and no one could take that away from him. Vasquez came with him, still keeping his eyes on him and making sure he didn’t do anything stupid.

“Why, Vaz, I’m hurt! I would never!” he said when Vasquez told him he would tag along, and it earned him the most beautiful eye roll he had ever seen.

So as the early afternoon found them wandering around the tiny town, Faraday was forced to wonder why Vasquez was willing to put up with him for so much. Sure thing, the others had come in to check how he was or stay with him when Vasquez went to eat or tend to something, but it was still him who spent the most time with him. Faraday stared at Vasquez while he pondered this, letting his eyes take in the soft lines of his jaw, his short beard and the warmness of his eyes. He had already noticed this, the way Vasquez’s eyes shined so bright and friendly, always radiating kindness when not in a fight. Only then did they harden and God help whoever was on the receiving end of that deathly glare…

“What is it, guero?”

The question jerked Faraday out of his thoughts and he shook his head as he quickly looked away from his friend.

“Nothing. Just happy to be outside again” he shrugged casually and was really glad that Vasquez couldn’t hear how fast his heartbeat was. Why was his heartbeat so fast? There was really no reason…

“Yes, I’m glad you’re all better now” Vasquez smiled at him and bumped their shoulders together in a friendly manner. And goddammit, but that didn’t help Faraday’s heartbeat problem at all. He only smiled and nodded and tried to calm his overzealous heart.

On the evening before they would finally ride out for their next destination, Faraday was lying on his back on the bed, already stripped to a shirt and smallclothes when Vasquez was just about to get ready for sleeping. He had already kicked down his boots and was now unstrapping his pistols, placing them carefully on the table. Faraday watched him reach for his vest next, taking it off slowly and draping it over one of the chairs. He was standing with his back to Faraday, so he didn’t notice the way he was staring shamelessly at him, or the way he bit his lip when he reached for the first button of his shirt. He was about to reach for the bottom of his shirt to take it down when Faraday decided to speak up.

“Hey, Vaz, got a question for you.”  
Vasquez finished pulling his shirt off and draped it over the back of the chair, too, before turning towards Faraday.

“Yes?”  
And it was just not far, Faraday thought to himself as he tried to not stare at Vasquez’s muscular chest. But he couldn’t not see it if he looked in his direction, so he just turned his gaze towards the ceiling.

“I was just wondering… You spent an awful lot of time with me while I was sick and… You didn’t have to. So why did you?”

His words were followed by a few moments of silence, before he heard Vasquez sigh.

“I know I didn’t have to. But I wanted to” he started explaining, but he seemed so hesitant that Faraday couldn’t help but look back at him. Vasquez wasn’t looking at him but directed his gaze downwards, a serious expression on his face. “Someone had to take care of you and I was actually glad I could spend some time with you. Alone.”

Well, that was not the kind of answer Faraday expected – he didn’t know what he was expecting, actually, but he found he was happy to hear this. He felt his stupid heart speed up again as he tried to figure out what he should say next.

“I… I was glad it was you staying with me, too” he said finally, watching Vasquez again. Damn it, he was nervous. Why was he nervous? Was Vasquez nervous too? Well, judging by the shuffling, yeah, probably. Faraday sat up on the bed, so he was able to properly look at Vasquez but it wasn’t such an aggressive move. He didn’t know what was going through Vasquez’s mind, he didn’t want to startle him. But what the hell, he didn’t even know what was going through his own mind right now. It was a jumble of thoughts he couldn’t make out but in the center of all of this was Vasquez. But that was just the point, wasn’t it?

“Good to know, guerito” Vasquez said, the corner of his mouth lifting into an unsure little smile, and it sparked Faraday. He stood up from the bed and took a few steps towards Vasquez, longing but unsure, with a decision in mind but waiting if Vasquez was in the same boat.

When Vasquez closed the rest of the distance between them, he waited for a moment, waited for a last moment to see if Faraday wanted to just back up and leave it at that. But he didn’t. He raised his hands instead and placed them on Vasquez’s naked chest, and oh, Vasquez was suddenly very lucky and very, very self-conscious, but he didn’t have much time for that, because next thing he felt was Faraday’s shallow breath on his lips and he was suddenly looking into an unsure, slightly panicked Faraday’s eyes from unbelievably close. Faraday stared at his lips, then looked up into his eyes and gave Vasquez a soft, nervous chuckle, and yes, Vasquez felt the same – the incredulousness that they were in this situation, that both of them wanted this to happen, and that it was actually going to happen. So Vasquez gave Faraday a reassuring smile, then slipped his hands around the man’s waist and leaned forward to kiss him.

It was a relief. He felt exact moment all fear left Faraday’s body – he felt it because it was the same for him. Faraday was also a great kisser as it turned out, and for a moment, Vasquez honestly considered that there might be something to that ‘world’s greatest lover’ thing Faraday was so keen on repeating-  
Then Faraday was pulling him forward, towards his bed, and- Well, it looked like he was going to be able to decide for himself. He tangled his hands into Faraday’s shirt, grabbing fistfuls of it and ready to pull it off the moment he was finally willing to release Faraday’s lips from the kiss- And then Faraday tripped and they both fell onto the bed, the old thing creaking loudly under them. There was a momentary pause, then they looked into each other’s eyes and started laughing, in relief, in happiness and because of their own silliness.

Then Vasquez leaned down to kiss Faraday again and they were then smiling for a slightly different reason.

It was impossible not to notice them, Faraday realized the exact moment the two of them sat down to have breakfast with the others. Both of them were smiling, completely unable and unwilling to hide it, and Faraday was happy to find out that Vasquez was equally as unable to keep his hands to himself. A gentle brush of their hands, a pat on the shoulder that lingered just a little longer, a hand on his thigh under the table… Yeah, they weren’t being subtle and he could see it on the other’s face who were all trying really hard not to say something about it. Faraday knew that one day they would all let it out, but for right now, he just pretended not notice it – and it wasn’t such a hard thing to pretend because all he could focus on was Vasquez.


End file.
